November 13th, 2018

Two linked offers containing all of the early Hero System material published between 1981 to 1987. One consists of the Champions superhero system (first through third editions) with a vast number of supplements, the other has everything published for this system that wasn't superheroes - space travel, fantasy, etc. I think it's the biggest of these offers I've seen - but the down side is that it's a fairly early system, and while the Hero System still exists and has gone through lots more editions, this offering still has quite a few rough edges.

Early Champions

"In April 2017 the Bundle of Holding presented a big double offer of 67 Champions Fourth Edition ebooks that, thanks to the hard work of Jason Walters and his team at Hero Games, all appeared in .PDF for the first time anywhere. Those two Champions 4E offers presented superheroic RPG rulebooks and adventures published between 1987 and 1993. But the history of Champions and the Hero System extends well before that. Hero Games published Champions in 1981; it was one of the first superhero RPGs. In the early 1980s Champions quickly grew beyond its roots into the all-encompassing Hero System, with standalone RPGs about modern-day espionage, pulp action, fantasy, science fiction, and giant robots.

Now, thanks to another ambitious effort by Jason Walters and the Hero team, the Bundle of Holding presents two all-new offers -- among the largest in Bundle history -- that debut the entire early output from Hero Games and its licensees, 1981-87. The titles in these offers are also sold individually on DriveThruRPG, but these two bargain-priced Bundle of Holding collections are the best way to acquire, at one stroke, a whole virtual shelf of classic Hero System ebooks.

This offer, Early Champions, presents the First, Second, and Third Editions of Champions, The Super Roleplaying Game, including the core superhero rulebooks and all their supplements and adventures. The companion offer, Early Hero System, has all the standalone non-superhero RPGs (Justice Inc., Espionage/Danger International, Fantasy Hero, Star Hero, and Robot Warriors) plus their support lines, including landmark supplements like Lands of Mystery, Mythic Greece, and Stormhaven.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$183.50. Customers who pay just US$14.95 get all fourteen titles in this offer's Core Collection (retail value $73.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the Champions core rulebook in its First (1981), Second (1982), and Third (1984) Editions (plus the introductory adventure "Viper's Nest" and the original hex-map); the jam-packed rules expansions Champions II and Champions III; no less than five collections in the popular Enemies series (I, II, III, International File, and Villainy Unbound); the Gadgets book of weaponry and equipment; and the Gamemaster Screens for First and Third Editions.

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $29.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with twenty-one more titles worth an additional $110:

Three famous genre sourcebooks: Strike Force and Super-Agents by Aaron Allston and The Golden Age of Champions (the version for Champions Third Edition) by Chris Cloutier

Early Hero System

"This Early Hero System offer presents the standalone non-superhero games, together with all their supplements and adventures, including standouts like Lands of Mystery and Stormhaven. All these games use the Hero System rules and are compatible with the various early editions of Champions.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $27.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Supplement Collection with thirteen more titles worth an additional $77.50:

Three Justice Inc. books: Aaron Allston's pioneering lost-worlds campaign supplement Lands of Mystery and the two-fisted pulp adventures Trail of the Gold Spike and The Adventure of the Jade Jaguar.

Five Espionage!/Danger International books: Border Crossing, Here There Be Tigers, Mugshots 2, SHADOW Over Scotland, and the Origins Award-winning campaign sandbox by Michael A. Stackpole, Stormhaven.

Three Fantasy Hero supplements: Mythic Greece: Age of Heroes, Magic Items, and The Spell Book.

The original version of the Hero System Bestiary, written for the pre-Fourth Edition rules. (We presented the 4E version of the Bestiary in our April 2017 Champions 4E Essentials offer.

Robot Gladiators, the sole supplement for Robot Warriors.

In its day this was a VERY influential system, more or less unsurpassed in its handling of superheroes. Every other system that has superpowers has been influenced by it. Later editions are still largely compatible with the older rules, and most of the old supplements can still be used with the modern rules.

For me, the big problem is how much of this stuff I already own in dead tree format - nearly all of the Champions material and about half of the Hero System material. And some of it has been replaced by material in later editions, which I also own. But if you don't already own it I strongly recommend it, if only to discover the joy of rolling buckets of dice as your heroes battle it out!

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